Well, if you haven't visited either of my other blogs, I do recommend that you do. I truly think you will enjoy the inspiration God gave me while writing my reflections on Genesis. And then today as I posted my latest I Peter blog, I thought perhaps a little nugget of what God is reminding me of might be good for my readers. So...I am going to borrow from that blog the opening paragraphs and the closing. To read the rest of the blog, you need to go to the side bar and click on "An Everlasting Hope", my Bible study blog on I Peter. Here's my intro for today:
My husband had just left our house for the last time. He was getting a divorce from me and had come
to pick up the items he wanted from our two year accumulation of married
life. When the door shut behind him, I
turned around crumbled in turmoil, asking God if He was going to reject me
also. After all, He hates divorce. I saw my Bible on the nearest table and went
to it to see if He had a Word for me. He
took me to Galatians 5:13 – For you have been called to live in freedom,
my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful
nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
At that
time of my life I focused on God loving me enough to release me from an
unfaithful husband, and yet be sure that my new found freedom didn't lead me
into a relationship that would displease Him.
It was several years later when I was seeking my life verse that I was
brought back to this Word from God. This
time He highlighted the last portion of the verse, the part about serving
others with love…His love. I had found
my life verse and my calling. It
basically boiled down to being set free to serve God by serving others. However, it was His love that set me free,
and His love that I needed within me to serve others.
Even though God had given me the mandate to serve others with love when He gave me my life verse (Galatians 5:13), He did not immediately gift me with all the attributes I would need to fulfill my calling. It’s been a life-long journey. There was a definite point in my journey where I surrendered my complete self to him…a point of consecration where I recognized God wanted to sanctify me…set me apart for His holy purpose. That still did not perfect me. I had to make daily choices that would either honor Him, or take my own way. I did not always honor Him, sad to say. But He never gave up on me, and through the failures, I learn and grow.
I have obtained wisdom through the years that I wish I would have had as a young mother and as a mid-lifer. Don’t we all wish we could turn the clock back sometimes and redo things differently? The key for me was to keep on my knees in prayer, surrendering my weaknesses, and asking for more of God’s grace. My heart’s desire was to please Him, to serve Him, to love others…but sometimes Carol just got in the way. So I would bring my messes to Him and ask Him to help me to be more like Jesus. He has never failed me. Now when I read these check points that Peter has given us, I see areas where I have made tremendous growth…I have come so far. But there are still some areas in which He is helping me to improve.
My passion and goal is to hear my Heavenly Father say to me, “Welcome home, my child, come on in… we've been waiting for you!” And I will know the journey I took was worth it all…just to see His face!!
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